Dimensions US-China: Collaborative Research: Impacts of heritable plant-fungus symbiosis on phylogenetic, genetic and functional diversity

作为生命的主要生产者，数十万种开花植物是地球生物多样性的重要组成部分。有趣的是，开花植物的种子通常以真菌和细菌的形式携带额外的生物多样性。种子携带真菌的各种影响包括加强保护宿主植物免受寄生虫，病原体和干旱的影响，以及对其生态系统多样性的影响。最近，一种真菌甚至被证明可以将抗病基因捐赠给小麦的野生亲戚。这项研究采用生态学，基因组学和其他生物科学的尖端方法，研究美国和中国植物及其种子携带真菌伙伴的多样性，这是全球植物多样性的热点。成果将指导保护生物多样性和促进健康、有复原力和多产的自然生态系统、牧场和牧场的努力。向公众和科学界提供的产出将增进对植物-微生物共生作为多样性的一个关键方面的了解。研究和教育交流活动将加强中美两国科学家和学生之间的科学合作，为研究生和博士后提供广泛的生物和生物信息科学方面的培训，并为K-12和本科生提供现场，课堂和实验室活动，以发现生物复杂性的微观和宏观层面。该项目将首先进行开花植物分类范围内的种子携带真菌内生菌调查，重点是中国的植物多样性。中国昆明的GBOWS（野生物种种质库）种子库包含37%的中国开花植物物种，将对该种子库和其他种子库进行调查，以研究真菌种子内生菌在开花植物多样性中的发生和可能作用。然后，内生共生植物物种将在广泛的地理范围内进行调查，以阐明目标植物及其共生体的多样性的不同“维度”的相互作用。这些方面包括遗传学、基因表达、形态特征和生态效应。这些研究还将扩展到与目标物种和它们可能拥有的种子内生菌相关的邻近植物。为了补充这些大规模的调查，第三个目标将涉及与K-12学校联合进行的实地实验，以测试禾本科和豆科植物种子携带的真菌内生菌如何驱动其宿主和更广泛的植物群落的多样性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As primary producers of life, the hundreds of thousands of species of flowering plants are an essential component of Earth’s biodiversity. Interestingly, seeds of flowering plants often bear additional biological diversity in the form of partnering fungi and bacteria. Diverse impacts of seed-borne fungi include enhanced protection of host plants from parasites, pathogens and drought, as well as effects on diversity of their ecosystems. Recently, one fungus was even shown to donate a disease resistance gene to a wild relative of wheat. This study employs cutting-edge methods in ecology, genomics and other biological sciences to research the diversity of plants and their seed-borne fungal partners in the U.S. and in China, a global hotspot for plant diversity. Results will guide efforts to preserve biological diversity and promote healthy, resilient and productive natural ecosystems, rangelands and pastures. Outputs to the public and the scientific community will enhance knowledge of plant-microbe symbiosis as a key dimension of diversity. The research and educational exchange activities will strengthen and diversify scientific collaboration between scientists and students in China and the U.S., provide training to graduate students and postdocs in a broad range of biological and bioinformatic sciences, and integrate field, classroom, and lab activities for K-12 and undergraduate students to discover microscopic and macroscopic layers of biological complexity.This project will first entail a survey for seed-borne fungal endophytes across the taxonomic range of flowering plants, with emphasis on the plant diversity in China. The GBOWS (Germplasm Bank of Wild Species) seed collection in Kunming, China encompasses 37% of Chinese flowering plant species, and this and other collections will be surveyed to examine occurrence and possible roles of fungal seed-endophytes in the diversity of flowering plants. Then, endophyte-symbiotic plant species will be surveyed over wide geographic ranges to elucidate interactions of different “dimensions” of diversity of the target plants and their symbionts. Such dimensions will include genetics, gene expression, morphological characteristics, and ecological effects. These studies will also extend to neighboring plants that grow in association with the target species and the seed-endophytes that they, too, might possess. To complement these broad-scale surveys, the third objective will involve field experiments, conducted jointly with K-12 schools, to test how seed-borne fungal endophytes of grasses and legumes may drive diversity of their hosts and the broader plant community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.